Preserving the Mountain in ME 5K race/walk

5K run/walk featuring the Beauty of the Greenway in Pigeon Forge. All proceeds benefit the education programs of Keep Sevier Beautiful.

Time: Saturday, April 16 · 7:30am – 9:00am

Location: Pigeon Forge Greenway

Click Here to Download Registration Form

REGISTER ONLINE HERE!

Keep America Beautiful and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Team Up to Grow Nearly 700 People’s Gardens

STAMFORD, Conn., Dec. 7, 2010 – Keep America Beautiful (KAB) affiliate organizations have responded to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) call to action in sustaining 670 community gardens this past year as partners in the USDA’s People’s Garden Initiative.

Keep Sevier Beautiful is the proud recipient of the People’s Garden Award for our initiatives for 2010.  We have worked aggressively to improve the partnerships with outstanding organizations in Sevier County such as the Sevierville Garden Club, Sevierville Trees & Trails Committee, Gatlinburg Goes Green, Sevier Solid Waste Inc. and the Sevier County School System.  It is the goal of Keep Sevier Beautiful to grow these relationships and develop many others as together there is so much that can be done to show off the natural beauty if Sevier County for our residents and visitors.

“Keep America Beautiful affiliates have always been leaders in beautification and community greening at the grassroots level,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Matthew McKenna. “The People’s Gardens initiative, and our partnership with the USDA, is a demonstration of how the work of our affiliates fosters civic pride and sustainable gardening throughout the country.”

“Real and effective change starts small and it starts in our communities” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “With the help of Keep America Beautiful we can ensure that the ideas behind the People’s Garden are adopted and improved upon in communities across the country.”

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and People’s Garden Director Livia Marques invited Keep America Beautiful to join this sustainable garden movement at KAB’s 2009 National Conference in Washington, D.C.  Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest community improvement network, responded by engaging nearly 200 of its national network of affiliates in this effort to incorporate sustainable conservation practices.

The People’s Gardens program was launched by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Feb. 12, 2009, to commemorate the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The initiative is an effort by the USDA to challenge its employees to establish People’s Gardens at USDA facilities or help communities create gardens through collaborative efforts. Each ‘People’s Garden’ can vary in size and type, but they must include the following three components:

Benefit the Community: Gardens benefit communities in many different ways. They can create spaces for leisure or recreation that the public can use, provide a harvest to a local food bank, be a wildlife friendly landscape, or be a rain garden to absorb storm water run-off and protect the soil from erosion.

Be Collaborative: The garden must be created and maintained by a partnership of local individuals, groups, or organizations.

Incorporate Sustainable Practices: The garden must include gardening practices that nurture, maintain and protect the environment such as:

∙ Capturing rainwater in rain barrels

∙ Composting and mulching

∙ Planting native species

∙ Encouraging beneficial insects that feed on destructive pests

About the United States Department of Agriculture’s People’s Garden
The People’s Garden initiative is an effort by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which challenges its employees to establish People’s Gardens at USDA facilities worldwide or help communities create gardens. People’s Gardens vary in size and type, but all have a common purpose – to help the community they’re within and the environment. For more information, go to www.usda.gov/peoplesgarden.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. This national nonprofit forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments.  For additional information, visit www.kab.org.

Keep Sevier Beautiful Honored by Keep America Beautiful for High Performance Achieved in 2010

Local Organization Recognized as Among the “Best of the Best” Nationwide

Sevier County, Tennessee – (Dec. 10, 2010) – Keep Sevier Beautiful received Keep America Beautiful President’s Circle Award at the President’s Circle Award Luncheon, during Keep America Beautiful’s 57th annual National Conference in Orlando, Fla. The President’s Circle Award recognizes exemplary performance made by certified affiliates of the national nonprofit to reduce litter, minimize waste and recycle, and beautify their local communities.

In qualifying for a President’s Circle Award, Keep Sevier Beautiful has met Keep America Beautiful’s standards of excellence by conducting an annual Litter Index, calculating the affiliate’s cost/benefit ratio, and engaging volunteers to take greater responsibility for their community environment. In addition, award recipients must conduct activities in Keep America Beautiful’s three core focus areas of litter prevention, recycling and waste reduction, and beautification/community greening.

“One of Keep America Beautiful’s most effective tools is the work of our grassroots network of affiliate organizations, which has an impact on millions of Americans each year,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Matthew M. McKenna. “Our affiliates are providing real solutions to problems like litter, graffiti, illegal dumping and other community blights. By engaging people of all ages in community improvement efforts, <<your affiliate name>> is represented among the best in promoting the values Keep America Beautiful espouses nationally.”

Litter Index: The Keep America Beautiful Litter Index is a tool used by KAB affiliates to measure litter from year to year, identify “hot spots,” and track their progress in remedying the problem. The tool uses a four-point Likert-type ordinal scale (ranging from 1 – no litter to 4 – extremely littered). The Litter Index can be applied to rural or urban areas of any population size. Each year, affiliates grade their communities during a drive-by examination of the same areas at the same time of the year. This provides an indication of the success of each community’s anti-littering education and other anti-littering programs. Keep Sevier Beautiful conducted its Litter Index this past June, and Sevier County Tennessee  rated a 1.34 on the Litter Index.

Cost/Benefit Analysis: This measurement tool enables Keep America Beautiful affiliates to demonstrate their ability to leverage community resources by determining the dollar value returned to the community for every government dollar invested. Keep Sevier Beautiful returned over $10 for every dollar it received during the last fiscal year.

About Keep Sevier Beautiful

The mission of Keep Sevier Beautiful is to Engage and educate individuals in Sevier County to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. We strive through education to change and establish habits to last a lifetime.

About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of more than 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations, Keep America Beautiful forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. For additional information, visit www.kab.org.